Tuesday, May 1, 2012

Today the theme is Death! Both of our stories from Horror Tales, Vol. 2 No. 4, July 1970 are concerned with the departed, so I thought I would give you a couple of famous thoughts on the subject from famous people - both expressing the profoundly democratic nature of the skull and scythe:

"Pale Death with impartial tread beats at the poor man's cottage door and at the palaces of kings." Horace - Odes, I, iv, L.13

"O eloquent, just, and mighty Death! Whom none could advise, thou hast persuaded; what none hath dared, thou hast done; and whom all the world hath flattered, thou only hast cast out of the world and despised." Sir Walter Raleigh - History of the World, bk. V. pt. I, ch. 6, conclusion

Along these same lines, let's enjoy our first story, "The Vanishing Dead;" which is a straight up reprint of an earlier Atlas tale with only a modicum of Eerie Pub. enhancements (read: blood splatters).

Again, with "Chant of the Dead" we find an Eerie Pub. B&W reprint of a story which previously appeared Strange Fantasy#2, 1952 (and appeared before that originally in ELLERY QUEEN #1, 1949 - thanks for the info, Spacelord!).

Visit my bud, Karswell, at The Horrors Of It All to cast your peepers on the original in fully drenched color. Just click HERE!

Just for shits and giggles I thought I'd toss in this little, two-page feature, "Facts for Ghouls." Clearly, this is Eerie Pub. editors trying extremely hard to make a scary version of Robert Ripley's Believe it or Not!

Eerie Publications published horror magazines cheap and quick - with a quivering eye to the naked dollar. No fine-art pretense here; not by a goddamned far cry. Eerie slithered under the comics code by publishing their mags in an oversized, black and white format; thus they were classified as magazines not comics. The concept was to catch the adolescent male’s attention with lurid covers of gore (popped eyeballs a speciality), sex, and primary colors. What can one say but "Mission Accomplished!"

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Owner of Eerie Publishing, Myron Fass, started in the business as a comic book artist but at some point decided to make some money. He began publishing magazines on the cheapest pulp paper available, using artists and writers who, for a variety of reasons, worked cheap. His magazines had covers vibrant with severed heads, staked vampires, and dangling eyeballs; and the stories within were often "retellings" done up bloody or straight-up reprints without the slightest nod given to source material. This low-ball strategy, so clearly a fevered clutch at the adolescent dollar, was the successful bulwark of Fass’ publishing empire. Along with the horror titles celebrated here, Fass published dozens of other special-interest magazines like Brute, Buccaneer, Duke, and Official UFO (to name but a few).

The late publisher has been called a shlockmeister, a con-man, a rip-off artist, a smut peddler, and a brilliant businessman; and his publications have been called cheap, tawdry, blasphemous, low-rent, and sleazy. Mr. Fass and his magazines were all these things and so much more. After his retirement from publishing, he owned and operated a gun store in Florida. He died in 2006.

. . . Fass’ legacy lies like a cheap vampire in darkness, awaiting the call of tacky blood. Let the memories stalk the earth like fetid, sewer zombies - memories of riding my bike to Cunningham’s Drug Store, rushing inside like a sweaty neophyte to stand before the immense rack where the magazines were displayed for my pleasure. In the dank, wet halls of memory, I can still feel that jolt of prurient electricity upon seeing the newest issue of Terror Tales or Tales From the Tomb nearly glistening in bright slime among the other dull publications. Oh, Brothers, hear me! It is Thursday afternoon, and the new magazines are in! - Mykal

** A brief note about The Horrors Of It All: Many of Eerie Publication's stories came from earlier, pre-code horror comics, given a quick re-write and fresh art for a more slimy, gory second life! Let's think of them as "homages!" THOIA specializes in these original, pre-code horror stories. Go and look, damn you!!

The Bloody Pulp uses Mike Howlett's book, The Weird World of Eerie Publications, as a primary source of information for all posts.